While we were interpreting in Guatemala, I traced the temple theme throughout the Old Testament. Guatemala was a great schoolroom for studying the parallels between Eden and the Garden-of-Eden-like tabernacle and temple. Like Eden and the Guatemalan sky, the tabernacle and temple had curtains of blue, purple, and scarlet.
Like Eden, the Guatemalan landscape glowed with trees in blossom. Both the tabernacle and the temple had lampstands shaped like trees in blossom. The molten sea of brass might have burnished in the sun like the water under a Guatemalan sunset or the evening sky on the first Sabbath. I pondered the temple-building efforts of man as I read about the Tower of Babel and hiked at Tikal. I gazed at the night sky and thought of God atop a ladder—flinging a yo-yo of angels to turn a stone pillow into “the house of God . . . the gate of heaven” (Genesis 28:12-17).
As Chuck and I moved from place to place—two flights and a taxi ride to a room at a ramshackle guesthouse, six hours by bus and a delightful jaunt by boat to a cabin built over water, three shared van rides to a spare room in a bamboo forest, a last-minute ride with a newfound friend through a driving rain to another room at a guesthouse—I thought of the tabernacle on the move, and I worshiped as I went.
On our last day in Guatemala, we were coming down a mountain in a jeepy jalopy. We had learned that our guide and driver were Christ-followers. With my strings of Spanish nouns and imperfectly-conjugated verbs, we had discussed Christian books and were now talking about worship songs. Our driver popped in a CD and the four of us praised God together, with Chuck and me contributing halting Spanish and off-key notes. Like Ezekiel, we saw the glory of God and—rather than being attached to a building—it had wheels. “And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went . . .” (Ezekiel 1:19-20a).
Back in York City, there are trees that are withering (Ezekiel 47:12). But, because God tabernacled among us (John 1:14), because One greater than the temple came (Matthew 12:6), because the Temple built without hands was rebuilt in three days (Mark 14:58)—those who were far off have come to help in its building (Zechariah 6:12-15). We who were far off now labor for a temple that will become a city named “The Lord Is There” (Ezekiel 48:35).
Because we are joined with Jesus, who is the Temple, we are living stones in the breathing temple of God (Ephesians 2:21-22). One day, we who are the temple, will join our bridegroom, who is the Temple, in a garden-like city that is shaped like the Temple’s Holy of Holies.
In coming to the end (or the new beginning), I realized I had it all backward. Tracing the temple theme throughout Scripture should not simply point to paradise lost in the garden and restored in the blossoming city. I had it backward because I had neglected to start at the very beginning: “In the beginning, God” (Genesis 1:1). I had started with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and starting with man always leads to confusion. Before the garden, there was God who dwelt in triune delight in a heavenly sanctuary: “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven” (Psalm 11:4). This generously over-spilling God—who is Paradise—extended His heavenly paradise to dwell with His image-bearers in an earthly paradise (Stephen Kring’s sermon, “The Temple,” and Gregory K. Beale’s article, “Eden, the Temple, and the Church’s Mission in the New Creation”).
When sinners defiled the temple God had established in the Garden, God chose not just to cleanse the temple from our sin by planting cherubim to guard the Holy of Holies, but also worked to cleanse us for the heavenly temple: “Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Hebrews 9:23-24).
Wonder of wonders! “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3).
One day, in that perfect Temple, every tree will be a tree of life with leaves of healing for the nations (Revelation 22:3). Every mountain will have people picnicking with God (Exodus 24:11b). Every lampstand will be outshone by the light of the world (Revelation 21:23). Every river will flow bright as crystal from the throne of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1). The glory of the Lord will light every place where Deaf people are now in darkness, removed from the gospel. The only thing that will flood will be the knowledge of the glory of God (Habakkuk 2:14).